By Arun Kumar, IANS,
United Nations : India has called for substantive measures to strengthen the role of UN General Assembly as the chief deliberative, legislative and policy-making and representative body of the international community.
“You can expect India’s constructive support and participation in these efforts,” India’s Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri said at the meeting of the adhoc working group on the revitalisation of the general assembly Monday.
He said it is critical to establish a proper relationship of respect for respective mandates between the General Assembly and the Security Council in the spirit of the Charter.
India which joined the Security Council in January after a gap of 19 years had noticed that the Council’s agenda is, to say the least, overburdened, he said.
“This is because the Council busies itself with themes which no doubt and certainly important, are still not directly connected to the real and immediate threats to international peace and security,” Puri said.
This has left the Council with less time to focus on the real hotspots that constitute the real threats to international peace and security, he said.
“At the same time, however, we believe that remedial measures would only be half complete in the absence of serious introspection on what the General Assembly itself can do to mitigate the situation.”
Clearly, the Assembly will not be empowered merely by strengthening procedures, Puri said. “More important is the presence of political will to take concrete measures to reinforce the role and authority of the Assembly.”
The Assembly must also have a greater say in the process of selection of the Secretary General, the Indian envoy said.
UN Charter provisions clearly reflect the desire of the UN membership to have an international civil service which displays the highest standards of professionalism, neutrality and integrity, Puri said.
India believes that the Assembly and other entities that form part of the UN system must reflect diplomatic best practices in its day to day functioning, he said.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])